Kadai Chicken also known as Chicken Karahi is again one of those dishes you would find in most Indian restaurants. This is usually made almost like a stir fry - but I made it a slightly saucy version. Kadai Chicken comes with a good mix of flavours and textures. A bit of tangyness from the tomatoes, a bit of crunch from the bell peppers (capsicums), sweetness from the onions and of course a bit of kick with the ginger julienne added as a garnish. This is a fairly quick one to prepare. This came up as a last minute dinner plan with an end to end preparation time within 30 minutes. Of course there is also distant cousin Kadai Paneer which is also prepared in a similar way with Paneer. Goes very well with warm rotis (or chappatis).
Ingredients
- Diced chicken breast
- Onions - cut in cubes
- Capsicums / Bell Peppers (Green) - cut in cubes
- Tomatoes - roughly cut
- Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon purely for colour
- Ginger Garlic paste - freshly ground
- Cashews - 2/3
- Salt
- Red Chilli powder - preferably Kashmiri chilli for colour
- Cumin powder
- Coriander powder
- Garam masala
- Kasuri Methi - dried fenugreek leaves
- Milk
- Ginger julienne - for garnish
- Coriander leaves - for garnish
Method
- Saute the cashews, onions (3/4ths of quantity diced) and tomatoes in any vegetable based oil until the tomatoes are mushy and set aside to cool.
- You can dice the chicken while the onions / tomato cools down.
- Blend the sauteed cashew, onion and tomato mix into a smooth paste
- Heat a kadai (sauce pan) with oil and saute the blended paste along with ginger garlic paste and a tomato paste.
- Saute until the oil separates and the raw flavour is gone.
- Add salt, garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, kasuri methi (crushed into a powder in your palm), chilli powder and saute for a few minutes until the spices are blended well.
- Add the chicken pieces and cook with a closed lid for about 10 minutes.
- Add water as much as needed for the sauce. Ideally prepared without water.
- Add a dash of milk - whole cream version. You can substitute with cream as well.
- Add the remaining onions and capsicums and saute for about 5 minutes. Need to stop before the capsicums
- Add a tea spoon of garam masala at the end.
- Garnish with ginger julienne and coriander leaves.
Restaurant / Dhaba style Kadai Chicken ready!!
Happy Cooking
C